


Hurt

by lifeaftermeteor



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Established Adam/Shiro (Voltron), Galaxy Garrison, Hurt Shiro (Voltron), Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Pre-Canon, Pre-Kerberos Mission, Sick Shiro (Voltron)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-04
Updated: 2019-05-04
Packaged: 2020-02-23 19:17:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 747
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18708331
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lifeaftermeteor/pseuds/lifeaftermeteor
Summary: The mechanism at his wrist isn’t working like it should and that means only one thing: Shiro is running out of time. During one particularly bad episode, Adam offers some comfort.





	Hurt

**Author's Note:**

> I realize there are lots of fan theories out there about what we can reasonably assume Shiro’s unnamed disease is...but as someone recently diagnosed with fibromyalgia, I’m doing a bit of personal self-projection insofar as his symptoms are concerned. Creative license deployed!

Shiro lay curled on his side in bed and struggled to breathe normally.  The pain had started somewhere in his back only to spread throughout the rest of his body—a stubborn, constant ache that was gradually wearing him down and clouding his head.  His eyes drifted to the band on his wrist.  He glared at the medical device and willed it to work _harder_. 

The bed shifted as Adam climbed in to join him, body slotting easily against Shiro’s back as he wrapped his arms around his waist. He pressed a tender kiss to his temple and Shiro let his eyes drift shut.  When Adam spoke, his voice was a whisper.  “You okay?” 

“It hurts.”  An understatement, but the pain was exhausting...and frustrating.  Shiro clenched his teeth and breathed deeply in through his nose, forcing the air down into his lungs even though his ribs ached at the expansion.  Getting angry wouldn’t help, he knew.  As much as he wanted it to, it never did. 

Adam’s arm tightened its grip around his midsection, his lips ghosting over his ear.  “Where?” 

“Everywhere.” 

There was a soft exhale that ruffled Shiro’s hair, but whether it was a sigh of amusement or exasperation, Shiro didn’t know.  But then Adam asked, “Where does it hurt _the most right now?”_

Shiro considered this, swallowing thickly as he studied the growing agony in his muscles and joints. Then—“My hips.”

Adam pulled away at the answer and tapped Shiro’s thigh, instructing, “On your back.” As Shiro rolled over, Adam shucked the sheets further off their bed and knelt near his knees.  He reached down and gently bent one of Shiro’s knees, angling his foot in towards the opposite thigh.  And then—with one hand on either thigh just above Shiro’s knees—he pressed down with slow but steady pressure.  Shiro hissed sharply between his teeth as his muscles and joints protested and Adam’s hands withdrew their familiar weight...only to return two inches higher up his thighs.  Shiro groaned as his body resisted.  “I know,” Adam murmured.  “Breathe.” [1] 

As Adam manipulated his leg, bending his knee and pushing it in towards his chest, Shiro winced. He then forced himself to take a deep breath, exhaling slowly between pursed lips. In for five...out for five…repeat ad infinitum. [2] 

But it wasn’t really ‘forever,’ was it?  They had told him—warned him—years ago.  When they gave him the wristband, they _told_ him that it would become less effective as the disease ran its course and eventually...eventually it would stop working altogether. And when that happened, the end would be real fucking nigh. Shiro clenched his teeth and tried to think of _anything_ but the fact that he was running out of time. 

Swallowing thickly, Shiro said, “This would be pretty sexy if it didn’t hurt so much.”  There was a breathy laugh above him in response.  Adam’s fingers curled against and caressed Shiro’s hip where his hand held and stabilized it against the bed beneath them.   

But even as the tightness in his hips subsided under Adam’s careful attention, the flood was coming.  Shiro could feel it in the sudden tightness in his throat, the telltale pinprick of tears behind his eyelids, the way his lips trembled.  His breath shook on his next inhale and the sound betrayed him. 

Adam stretched and straightened his leg once more, but then his weight shifted and his arms came forward to brace themselves on either side of Shiro’s head. He peppered Shiro’s face with tender, chaste kisses and whispered, “Don’t, Takashi. Don’t think about all of that. Focus on _this_ —right here, right now.” 

Shiro kissed him back, eyes shut tight, and took comfort in the familiar weight on top of him.  His arms came up to curl around Adam’s ribs, fingers clawing at his back.  He wouldn’t succumb to the dark thoughts looming in the back of his mind, he swore to himself.  Instead he took a steadying breath and flooded his senses with his partner—the smell of him, the heat from his skin, the dull thud of his heart in his chest where it pressed so closed to his own.   

“Okay?” Adam asked, a hand coming up to comb through his dark hair as he withdrew once more.  Shiro nodded and focused his mind on the man above him...the breath in his lungs...and the darkness behind his eyelids as Adam got started on the second leg.

**Author's Note:**

> [1] These stretches are heavily inspired by Thai massage positions. 
> 
> [2] This practice is called Equal Breathing or Sama Vritti for yoga practitioners. It helps decrease anxiety/stress and increase focus. For those with stronger lungs or more experienced practitioners, you can get around 6-8 seconds per inhale/exhale.


End file.
